Sameur Abdenour
| place_of_birth = Algiers, Algeria | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | detained_at = Guantanamo | id_number = 659 | group = | alias = Abdenour Sameur | charge = No charge (held in extrajudicial detention) | penalty = | status = Released | occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children = }} Sameur Abdenour is a citizen of Algeria who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Abdenour's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 659. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on March 28, 1973, in Algiers, Algeria. He was transferred to the United Kingdom on December 19, 2007. Background Sameur Abdenour is an Algerian, who had political asylum in the United Kingdom, who had traveled to Afghanistan in 2001, and who faced serious allegations. He denied the allegations, acknowledged lying about attending military training in Afghanistan, but claimed he had only done so because his interrogators had withheld medical treatment until he confessed. The record shows that Sameur Abdenour is one of a small number of Guantanamo captives who attended his CSR Tribunal and both his first and second annual Review Boards. Combatant Status Review Tribunal s were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirrorInside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004 Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed. ]] Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunal to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant. Summary of Evidence memo A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdenour Sameur's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 9 September 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him: Transcript Abdenour chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. In response to a court order the Department of Defense was forced to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, and publish captives' transcripts. On March 3, 2006 the Department of Defense published a fifteen page summarized transcript from captive 659's Tribunal. Administrative Review Board hearings | pages=1 | author=Spc Timothy Book | date= March 10, 2006 | accessdate=2007-10-10 }}]] Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant". They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat—or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free. First annual Administrative Review Board A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Sameur Abdenour's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 29 August 2005. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention. The following primary factors favor continued detention The following primary factors favor release or transfer Transcript Sameur Abdenour chose to participate in his first annual Administrative Review Board hearing. In response to a court order the Department of Defense was forced to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, and release captives' transcripts. In the spring of 2006 the Department of Defense published an eighteen page summarized transcript from Sameur Abdenour's first annual Administrative Review Board hearing. Second annual Administrative Review Board A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdenour Sameur's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 17 May 2006. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention. The following primary factors favor continued detention The following primary factors favor release or transfer Transcript Sameur Abdenour chose to participate in his second annual Administrative Review Board hearing. In response to a court order the Department of Defense was forced to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, and release captives' transcripts. In September 2007 the Department of Defense published a twenty page summarized transcript from Sameur Abdenour's second annual Administrative Review Board hearing. Release negotiation On August 7, 2007 the United Kingdom government requested the release of Sameur Abdenour and four other men who had been legal British residents without being British citizens. The UK government warned that the negotiations might take months. References External links * Abdenour Sameur: Allegations of Abuse The UCDavis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas * Held in 'legal limbo' Harrow Times June 7, 2007 * The three returned to Britain and those still in Guantanamo Times Online December 20, 2007 Category:Living people Category:Algerian people Category:1973 births Category:People from Algiers Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released